Monday, September 24, 2012

A few years ago, I joined my college's
honor society and shortly after my induction, we participated in our
town's “Relay for Life” walk. I was still relatively new to the
group and hadn't had a chance to make any friends, so I brought Jay
along as a buffer for any social awkwardness.

We arrived early that cold morning and
walked up to register. After being pointed in the direction we needed
to go, Jeremy instinctively grabbed my hand as we weaved through the
walking path in search of my group's booth.

I spotted my old teacher first; he was
the advisor of our honor society and the only one I actually knew at
the time. We walked up and said our hellos, me introducing Jay as my
teacher shook the hand he wasn't holding.

It was then that he noticed our
clasped hands. He got that look...that look most people get when they
spot such an innocent display of affection. He got the attention of
another older member of the group and they started conspiratorially
commenting: 'young love, the honey moon phase, puppy love' with
fluttered eyelashes and exaggerated gestures.

Blushing, I told them of our then 6
year relationship, how we were well past the honeymoon stage. My
teacher reacted with a pleasantly surprised smile, commenting on how
he and his wife hadn't held hands in years, his joking partner
commenting the same. I just shrugged my shoulders, but I was a little
saddened by that.

When does that happen? At what point
do those little pieces of intimacy just stop?Relationships don't
fails due to lack of hand holding, but it's still a nice moment to
share. I remember a time when holding someone's hands was enough to
create butterflies and blushes and sweaty palms.

Even now at nine years, Jay and I
still holds hands, still kiss before coming and going, still say I
love you—with feeling—multiple times a day. By no means do the
excited jitters that once accompanied such actions still happen all
the time, but Jay's hand in mine still provides a connection I
cherish as our relationship continues to grow. Those little things
are a sense of comfort for me. If I am heading towards a situation
I'm unsure of, I can grab his hand and a sense of calm replaces all
anxiety. The simple touch letting me know that he's there, and he'll
be right there the entire time.

I'm not saying that Jay and I have a
perfect relationship because we still hold hands. Our relationship is
far from it and no amount of hand holding is going to solve all our
issues. But, what I'm trying to say is don't take those little
comforts for granted. Those things are important.

Go home tonight, or tomorrow, or right
now, and grab your partner's hand and just remember what it was like
that first time, when your relationship was new and such a simple
gesture told you all you needed to know in that moment. And then take
comfort in the fact that that hand is there when ever you need
something to hold on to.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Much like myself, this blog is back
from the dead. Somewhere around the time of my last post I just
dropped off the interverse. My twitter stopped (@Nikki_Writ if interested-also back from the dead), not that that ever
really got going; this blog was forgotten; and Facebook, the page I
used to check and update religiously, was filled with the sounds of
crickets.

Chalk it up to school stress, the
crushing blow I was delivered from said school, or the fact that my
weight loss was stalled somewhere between giving up and fighting to
lose one more pound. Either way, the creative well had dried up
quicker than my backyard in this drought filled summer.

So, I decided to scrap everything and
start over. Hopefully, round two of blogging will be much more
successful.

To get things started: what have I been
up to these past seven months?? Not a whole lot. I survived my first
year at big university and am beyond excited that I am only three
semesters a way from rocking a Bachelor degree.

I discovered Instagram and went a
little crazy taking pictures. If you have the time or inclination,
please check it out: http://web.stagram.com/n/eternalsun/.
If you are actually interested in one of my prints, I do have an
instacanv.as gallery, but I think the prices are outrageous and will
make and sell them to any interested party for less than the price
they have advertised.

I also went camping as a final hoorah
to the summer about a month ago. While it was a really nice way to
end the summer, it was slightly dampered by a run-in I had with a
patch of poison ivy. A month later and my legs still look like a red
speckled mess, but scars don't itch!

I read a lot. Two books I think all can
benefit from are Gillian Flynn's “Gone Girl” and Sol Smith's
“Sight.” Im working on full book reviews for the future.

In other news, I would really like to
revamp the look of my blog. If anyone is good at html, header
creation, or general design layouts and feels like taking on a
charity case, please HELP ME!! ;)

I have some ideas about what I want,
but no idea how to implement them.

About Me

I am a 26 year old recent college grad with a Bachelor of Arts in English. I love writing, reading and picture taking. My life consists of preparing to marry my husband-to-be, taking care of my furbabies and preparing for grad school. Most, if not all, my images are taken with my iphone. You are more than welcome to use a copy of anything you'd like, but I request that you give credit were credit is due and link it back.
Enjoy!